Steve Menard moved another step closer to making history as the first city council member to face a recall vote.
A petition asking Wasilla voters to oust the two-time councilman was turned in Monday at Wasilla City Hall about three and a half hours ahead of a 5 p.m. deadline. The petition, which has 284 signatures, says Menard’s behavior at a Sitka hotel room while on city business in August rises to the level of official misconduct in office.
If the petition has at least the required 201 valid signatures of registered city voters, it would be the first time a recall effort of a Wasilla official would be decided by an election, City Clerk Kristie Smithers said. In 14 years as city clerk, Smithers said she hasn’t seen a recall effort make it as far as Menard’s.
The recall effort, spearheaded by the local Conservative Patriots Group, is in response to Menard’s actions while attending the summer Alaska Municipal League meetings. When he went to check out after a three-day stay at the Westmark Sitka, the hotel discovered extensive damage to his room and charged the city $350 for cleaning.
An itemized bill from the hotel to the city lists damage that included two mattresses and a chair had been urinated on, a burned mattress and vomit on the carpet. After Wasilla City Council met in a 50-minute executive session after the trip to discuss Menard’s behavior, the councilman agreed to repay the entire cost of his trip, about $1,400, and was restricted from traveling on city business in the future.
Although Menard also apologized and acknowledged a longtime problem with alcohol, that he continues as a city councilman is unacceptable, said Jennie Bettine, CEO for Conservative Patriots Group. The group hoped Menard would resign, and when he didn’t, felt compelled to act.
“We had hoped he would have been man enough to man up and say, ‘I did something wrong and the people who voted for me shouldn’t have to put up with this,’” she said after CPG first submitted its petition application. “He did not choose to do that. … He should really just resign and not put the city through this.”
By the way the Conservative Patriots Group is a local group of Teabaggers that you would normally assume would have the back of one of the Grizzled Mama's longtime family friends. I guess urinating and vomiting all over hotel rooms and charging the town for the cost is where they draw the line.
Besides being close friends of the Palins little Stevie's mother, Linda Menard, is also a State Senator, but simply does not have the influence to protect her little boy from his own stupidity and weakness.
